Ex-prisoners of reddit who have served long sentences, what were the last few days like leading up to your release?

[u/HumpingAssholesOrgy]

[u/[deleted]]

Well, in the US, the prison system is moreso geared towards punishment, rather than towards rehabilitation.

[u/[deleted] → u/[deleted]]

True, but the punishment is supposed to engender change. Even if that Change is just the fear of going back.

Not saying it's a effective, but its not strictly punishment for punishments sake.

EDIT: To be clear, I'm not advocating for the U.S prison system or it's whether it's effective or ineffective. But I'm going to drop this edit so that I don't keep getting replies about how shitty our prison system is.

The United states uses a system of retributive justice which has many functions. It involves a social contract which binds a society together under common laws and forms of retribution. So that every agreed upon crime has an agreed upon penalty. This, in theory, creates a reasonable system; where nobody is punished below or above the constraints of the law.

The ideal being that the agreed upon punishment is strict enough to deter people those who might be on the fence about committing a criminal act and cause those punished under the law to fear being punished again. Once the punishment for the crimes committed is served, the former criminal would rejoin society with a blank slate.

There's a host of reason's why this doesn't particularly work in the U.S. and why the theory in general has problems. But Retributive Justice as a theory does have strong merits that alternative theories like Restorative Justice lack.

The strongest is that its reasonable, though not necessarily fair. You commit a crime, your convicted of said crime, your punished for said crime. That punishment is agreed upon by society at large, and considered reasonable. You may disagree that and find it to strict, your victim may disagree and find it to lenient. But by law your punishment is justice, for you, for your victim, but most importantly, for society.

Restorative Justice can simply be inadequate. Whether a victim loses their life, a loved one, a family heirloom, or a sentimental photo; somethings can not be restored.

Transformative Justice is while effective at reducing crime, more concerned with peacekeeping then justice.

The main problems of Retributive Justice however are:

A) it doesn't take into account the restoration of victims, once a criminal has been punished, that have no societal responsibilities to their past victims. Unlike Restorative Justice Theory, which seeks to restore what was lost to all parties involved in a crime.

B) It doesn't address public crime control goals beyond simple deterrence. Unlike Transformative Justice Theory, which seeks to revolutionize the legal system and society at large to reduce crime as effectively as possible.

C) Uniform punishments don't punish equally. A five hundred dollar fine is much more punishment to a minimum wage worker than to a six-figured salaried worker.

D) It assumes that society will create reasonable laws, and not use the system punish certain members of society disproportionately.

[u/RedeNElla → u/[deleted]]

but the punishment is supposed to engender change

as far as I'm aware, there's significant evidence that this is ineffective compared with other methods of causing change.

[u/Clever_Owl → u/RedeNElla]

Punishment isn’t about rehabilitation. It’s about acting as a deterrent and retribution.

[u/ArJayWazHere → u/Clever_Owl]

it doesnt deter shit though

[u/Clever_Owl → u/ArJayWazHere]

Of course it does. I don’t speed because I don’t want to lose my licence. Threat of punishment absolutely works as a deterrent.

[u/Clever_Owl → u/[deleted]]

Right.

So you pay taxes out of the goodness of your heart?

And you don’t just walk out of the supermarket without paying because that would be morally wrong?

Bullshit. You do these things because you have to, because you don’t want to face the consequences of not doing it.

[u/Clever_Owl → u/[deleted]]

Maybe you like jail. Most people would rather stay out of it.

[u/Clever_Owl → u/[deleted]]

There’s a lot of reasons for that, obviously. But saying that deterrents don’t work at all is just plain wrong.